CREATIVE WRITING

Fiction

Fiction

My story of writing fiction

Everything in my life can be traced to my mother – including my fiction! The long ‘back story’ of my fiction writing has a lot to do with her – with her instilling in me a fascination for stories as a child; sharing with me her love of literature, music and all things beautiful; and bringing me up in a home whose most prized possession were its books. But more than anything else, it has to do with her relentless faith in me as a writer and her urging me never to give up my creative impulse. In this, she has led by example – by publishing a book of fiction, Mukh-Michhil (in Bangla), at the age of 70!

Though I have read fiction all my life and dreamt of being an author ever since my college days, I gave priority to my academic ambitions and the business of earning a living in my 20s, starting to write fiction only in 2005. The incentive came in the form of a Creative Writing Workshop with my teenage idol Amitav Ghosh, organized and co-conducted by Prof. Rimi B. Chatterjee at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, which I greatly enjoyed being a part of and learnt a lot from, the principal lesson being that I can write fiction! It was a turning point in my life and I am indebted to that workshop for bringing it about.

Years later, in another life in a different continent, I would do another – with Amal Chatterjeeand Jane Draycott in Amsterdam, in 2013. The first had started off my fiction writing; this other gave me the impetus to complete my collection of shorts, Gariahat Junction. In between, thanks to the irrepressible Dipika Mukherjee, I became part of a writing group in Amsterdam (‘Mezrab’, ‘Zolder’, ‘Genre Fiction Group’ and ‘The Write Club’ being its various avatars), which helped me immensely in writing my fiction.

I am indebted to the members of the group/s for their critique, their friendship and solidarity, without which the writing experience would have been so much harder for me. I am also very grateful to a small band of loyal readers among my family and friends, whose encouragement has meant a lot to me.

And a special thanks goes to Kunal Basufor being an inspiration and a role-model for me for over a decade, when I was trying to find my voice. I still am…!

Manuscript Gariahat Junction

I am now seeking representation for Gariahat Junction; and have also started working on my second book of fiction, an epistolary novel set in the 1980s.

A story from Gariahat Junction – ‘Imaginary Battles’ – was published online in September 2014 by Lebowski Publishers.

I also did a reading from my manuscript at the American Book Centre (ABC), Amsterdam, in December 2014 – at their monthly ‘Meet My Book’ event, hosted by Claudio Tapia, a recent initiative to support the English writing community here.

Amsterdam Writing Community

Amsterdam has a vibrant English writing community; and its increasing success is showcased regularly in the Amsterdam writers Platform

Below is a list of the success stories of the last few years (three of which feature in AWP):

Mukh-Michhil

My mother, the closet writer, has come out at last!

At 70, she has published her first book of fiction in Bangla – “Mukh-Michhil” (A Procession of Faces). It is a collection of 45 short-shorts (or ‘Anu-golpo’, as they are called in Bangla). Initially inspired by the popular Bengali writer Banaphool’s ‘Natun Golpo’ in the late 1970s, she has been writing off and on in this genre ever since.

Encouraged by her uncle, the well-known author Manoj Basu, Ma actually started writing in the 60s – when she studied & taught Bengali literature – but except for some sporadic submissions in magazines, didn’t publish till recently. She has never stopped writing, though. She is blessed with an inexhaustible fount of creativity: gathering dust in her desk drawers are some 200 poems (poetry is her first love), 150 limericks, 40 stories & 4 unfinished novels. For many years now, I’ve been coaxing her to take them out, with my sister & father later joining the chorus. In 2010, a book of ‘chhara’ (rhymes) for children was published. Mukh-Michhil was about to come out soon after… but as often happens with books, took a long time to find the right publisher.

Ma’s life had begun with rainbow hues… and then after marriage… it became monochromatic for decades – a familiar enough tale, which she has herself turned extraordinary, by keeping her passion for writing alive through all the travails of her life. I only hope that the colour comes back to her life again, brightened anew, by sharing her writing with the world.